How to Travel with a Salmon, by Umberto Eco

This is a great collection of essays that connects the amazing author of "Foulcault's Pendulum" with a more human persona. Well, by more human I mean that it shows his great sense of humour (sarcastic, sardonic, cynic), not that it sheds the high level thoughtfulness and intellectual point of view that defines Eco as a person. The first essay, the one about the salmon is killer. The last line, however, really suffered in the translation from Italian to English: "I asked for a lawyer and they brought me an avocado." Most of the essays, with the exception of "Stars and Stripes" are short, sweet, and carry a depth that must be explored by the reader according to mood and taste. I'm sold; I'll be reading his other collections in the future.